Spanish Civil War

Bombs Away

by Rockwell Kent

As a member of the American Artists’ Congress, Kent was extremely sympathetic to the Spanish Republican cause supported by the Congress, and painted Bombs Away as a visualization of this support. 

The painting is an allusion to the German bombing of Guernica, a Spanish town bombed by Germans in 1937 and the subject of Pablo Picasso’s famous painting, Guernica. 

Kent’s painting focuses on two female figures.  The young girl attempts to awaken the older woman, possibly her mother or grandmother, from an apparent trance brought on by the destruction of their town visible in the background.